Differences
by ZAPBETH
Summary: Harry, I wouldn’t have stopped loving you because of that, I stopped loving you, because you left me alone for five years. [oneshot, HarryGinny]


"The service will be beautiful, dearie," sang the soon-to-be mother-in-law to the smiling bride-to-be, who was looking at her reflection in the full-length mirror. Her fingers nervously touched the silky material, biting her lip at the same time. The dress robes she wore were elaborate, but not overly decorated to seem complicated or not elegant.

"Oh, Molly, as pretty as these robes are, I'm not sure that Ron will like them," Hermione said in a very concerned voice as she fingered the embroidery on her left sleeve. "And I just don't want him to see them, in honor of my Muggle heritage..." As she trailed off, her eyes ran over to a rack of simpler robes nearby, but luckily Mrs. Weasley caught her as she glanced their way.

"Oh, Ron will love them, Hermione, dear," Mrs. Weasley reassured her soon-to-be daughter-in-law. "And as far as I know, I'm sure he'll be looking at you, not your robes." She added this as she nodded to the low neckline of the robes.  
-  
"Merlin, Harry, stop drinking that stuff for one minute," Ron said into his bottle of butterbeer, looking toward his friend who was getting reacquainted with some firewhiskey, "long enough to listen to my woes." Ron picked up his bottle and took a long swig before looking at his still sober friend. "With the way you're drinking tonight, are you sure you're going to be at the wedding tomorrow?" he asked, noticing that the bottle was near empty.

"Is Ginny going to be there?" Harry asked, avoiding the question of the alcohol consumption. His eyes were downcast and did not seem to be the same caliber of green as they had been before the war had come to its last, traumatic battle at Hogwarts. You could easily see the pain and suffering still evident in his eyes, although five years had passed since Voldemort had been destroyed.

"Mate, she's my sister. Of course, she's going to be there," Ron said, eyeing Harry carefully. "Where's your head today? Up in the clouds?" In spite of himself, Ron laughed at his own pathetic joke. Harry, however, did not even smile at the joke, which caused Ron to stiffen his face muscles once again.

"I don't know about this whole best man thing," Harry said, glancing into his bottle with a slight frown on his face. "I don't want to get in Ginny's way or anything." His eyes moved toward the bar, eyeing another bottle of what he had just finished, and he was about to get up from his seat when Ron's arm pulled him back into his seat.

"What? It's been years since you saw Ginny," Ron said, clearly but only slightly mad at his friend, "and you've avoided any events that she might have been at. You're not missing my wedding, because of your weird thing with Ginny." He glanced toward the clock and saw that it was well past the time that they decided they would head home at. "Let's go. Just come to the ceremony, okay? You can probably steer clear of Ginny if you really wanted to"  
-  
Harry Potter was surprised when a hand seemingly came out of nowhere and hit him sharply on the cheek, causing his head to fly to the side. "HARRY JAMES POTTER! Did you honestly think that you could manage to avoid me for five years and not expect that I'd be royally pissed off at you?" Rubbing his cheek, which he was sure was as red as a tomato, Harry turned and found himself looking at a very angry, very pretty Ginny Weasley.

"Did you think: oh, I've avoided her for one year, let's see how long I can go until she hunts me down?" Ginny shouted at him, luckily in a private room in the chapel, away from both the bride and groom. "Why, Harry? Why would you stay away from me for that long when I didn't do anything wrong, in my knowledge?"

Harry groaned slightly, which was caught by Ginny and seemed to infuriate her more, but for once, she held her tongue in order to let him get in a word edgewise. "Hullo to you, too, Ginny," he said, glancing down at his black dress robes and comparing his to her light blue ones. "You know I doubt Ron would be very happy with a best man who looks like he's blushing the whole time during the ceremony." That seemed to soften her mood slightly, which, in turn, angered her all the more.

"I don't care about your measly excuses, Harry Potter," Ginny said as forcefully as she could, which turned out to be very forceful indeed. She was dressed in her maid of honor robes, which were as previously mentioned light blue. The color fit her surprisingly, not that most color didn't seem to. Her hair, done up with a little sprinkle of magic, was a loose bun with loose curls hanging down. In Harry's eyes, Ginny looked spectacular.

Harry opened his mouth to fight back in order to protect his dignity, thought better of it, closed it, and thought of a perhaps nicer thing to say. "You know what, Ginny? How about finishing up this conversation after the ceremony?" he said before heading to the door to return to Ron's room where they were going to be leaving soon to stand in front of the audience currently sitting themselves down. Out of the corner of his mouth, if you looked hard enough at it, you could see a faint smile.  
-  
As the odd wedding band with three trumpets and one oboe began to play, a rather weird rendition on the Muggle quartet, the doors to the main hall of worship were flung open, and the traditional Muggle wedding march begun. The ceremony was a mix of the wizardry ways and the non-magical traditions. The little flower girl dressed in the same light blue that Ginny's dress was, and she threw delicate red rose petals onto the floor.

The bridesmaids came next down the aisle. They were also wearing the light blue, but all the designs of the dress robes were slightly different than each other's. Extra room had been provided for Lavender's increasing stomach, which she had reminded everybody was going to fade away in a little under four months now.

Then, Ginny came out with the same dress robes as before. She looked stunning, walking and smiling toward the altar. She seemed to be full of confidence as she turned the corner to approach her position. Probably still angry from their early interlude, Ginny kept their eyes focused on the door, so far away from meeting Harry's eyes as she could.

Then Hermione, the bride, came out. No words could describe her beauty on this joyous day, for her and Ron at least.  
-  
"May I have this dance?" a familiar voice said behind her. Ginny turned about to find Harry standing there, his hands stuffed in his hands. "I know that Hermione said that the Muggle traditions didn't have to be followed at the reception, but..." Ginny raised in her eyebrows at his beat-around-the-bush tactic, but she chose not to say a word. "I would like to talk to you maybe?"

"Fine," she said and allowed him to lead her out onto the dance floor. As they walked out, a simple waltz started, causing them to be a little awkward-seeming on the floor, conscious of everyone's stares in their direction. Harry surprisingly turned out to be a rather good dancer, leading as though he had done this all his life, but Ginny remembered his rather awkward Yule Ball dancing.

"Ginny, I know I hurt you by staying away for so many years, but I had to, you know," Harry said after a few moments of silence as they danced on. "I needed time, after Voldemort was gone and all. I needed time to adjust to a life that I didn't have a set purpose in. But I have one, now, Ginny. That's why I agreed to come to the ceremony today." He smiled slightly at the memory of the beautiful service that had been performed, the little wand mixup and all.

"Harry, I don't see why you were okay with seeing Ron and Hermione but not me," Ginny said, not letting the anger she left enter into her voice. "I wanted to be there with you after the battle, but you were nowhere to be found. You didn't even say goodbye. I didn't hear a word from you directly for five years." The song they had been dancing to ended, and another slower song started. The two of them simply changed the tempo and continued dancing.  
-  
"Oh, Merlin, I hope they work out their differences now," Hermione said, after sitting down to take a sip of her wine. " I just hope he doesn't upset her more with his excuses. That wouldn't be a pleasant thing to get involved in. And you know that they'd drag us into it." With her wine glass still in hand, she turned to Ron and her eyes silently questioned for his opinion on the situation. With another glance in the pair's direction and a sigh, she set down her glass.

"You know that he was about ready to disappear again yesterday," Ron said, noticing her sigh and moving his hand to slide it into hers. He watched them as they danced on, hardly close enough to dance, talking in soft tones. "I hope they work it out, too, darling"  
-  
"I didn't want to disappoint you, Ginny," Harry said, glancing down at his shoes to make sure they were still moving slightly. "I didn't want you to see that I was a wreck after the battle. I didn't want you to think lower of me. I didn't want you to stop loving me." His uncertainty about all of this touched her heart, but she couldn't show it to him. She had to be strong and stand up for herself.

"Harry, I wouldn't have stopped loving you because of that," Ginny said in a low voice as not to disturb the other dancers. They had stopped dancing altogether now, but they stayed with their feet firmly planted where they were. "I stopped loving you, because you left me alone for five years." His already mellow face turned into a frown, which was easily detected on his face.

"But Ginny, I still love you. I never stopped," Harry said into her ear in a low voice so that only she could heard the words. Startled at these words, she stepped farther away from him and using the last bit of strength she had, turned away from his face and ran off the dance floor and into the woods behind the Burrow.  
-  
"Ginny?" a female voice called into the woods. "Ginny, I really don't want to ruin these robes, searching for you." Fairly close to you, Hermione heard some sniffling and weak crying, which she assumed could only be Ginny. She followed the sound and soon came to Ginny's hunched over form, her robes smeared with mud and ripped slightly. "Ginny?" Hermione asked again, causing her to raise up her head.

"He told me that he loved me, that he never stopped loving me," Ginny managed to get out between the tears that were falling. "The only reason I stopped loving him was that I believed that he stopped loving me." She bent her head down once more and sobbed into her now-ruined robes. Hermione, no longer worrying from her robes any more, sat down beside her and allowed her to cry on her shoulder.  
-  
A/N: I would like to inform you that there will be a sequel for this piece, also in short story form. I hope you liked it. Any reviews will be much appreciated. 


End file.
